Is it OVER for ORANGE MTB? I ride Wharncliff Woods Sheffield and discuss it

Orange Bikes is Britain’s leading bike manufacturer and has produced some amazing bikes over the years not to mention had some top names riding for them including none other than the GOAT himself Steve Peat.

But recently they’ve had financial troubles and why the bike industry as a whole is in hard times at the min, I wonder if the writing was on the wall for Orange anyway…

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Are orange bikes going to be okay at the time of filming this mid-February they just had a buyout about two weeks ago which looks like they’re going to be okay but I’m not so sure I’ve been looking into this a little bit I’ve been looking at the good and the bad and I’m

Not sure they’re quite out the woods yet what I really want to know though before I start is what you guys think what do you think the reasons are that orange got into trouble is it just a knock on effect of the current economy with the

Bike industry as a whole failing or is there more to it I’m here at War Cliff Woods today where I’m going to have a bit of a ride we’re going to check out War Cliff Woods and we’re going to talk about orange bikes which is quite apt

Actually because this is the home of probably their most famous son Steve Pete who once rad for orange taking them to some massive uh Glory way back when back in the day this is Steve Pete probably the AR will be the greatest of all time’s local playground so I’m at

War Cliff Woods we’re going to chat orange bikes let’s get into it so I’ve only been to war Cliff a couple of times War Cliff side I’ve p on greno side a few times as well but I’m going to check out some of these Trails going a quick look down here little trailer

Spotted there’s stuff died around all over the place in this woods so it’s quite wet and muddy today we’ve had all the rain this week so I got i’ check out this trying to get through this tree there we go it is way boggy and slippy just trying to keep it steady

W wa W oh held on somehow that is sketch so for those of you who don’t know orange bikes is probably the biggest bike company in the UK they came to Fame in the late ‘ 80s about 88 889 everybody they had a bike out in the early late early late ‘ 80s

Early ’90s uh called the Orange Clockwork or the Clockwork Orange obviously sort of piggy back in on the Stanley Stanley CW cubic Stanley cubic movie and they’ve always been really good really solid bikes and this isn’t I don’t want this video to be about on orange I do think orange are

A really really good bike company and they make really really good bikes but I do also think they’ve got some possible inherent problems or at least in problems on problems of their image now back in December 22nd I think it was they filed for administration now I

Learned a few things things it turns out that orange bikes was also in partnership with another company I think that were called uh basto steel or something like that and they were the people that actually made their frames and then basically there’s been a deal done a couple of weeks ago where the

Director I think from basto steel uh he’s bought the company out um from the administrators and the a few other things but there’s a few other things with orange bikes that kind of might be a bit more of a problem and I don’t think they’re out the woods yet in fact

I think the writing still might be on the War but there’s a few things that has happened things like Leeder Lakes one of the biggest bike shops in the UK now they’re famous for stocking like every brand they decided last year not to sell orange bikes anymore which was

An interesting decision now I did a bit of research on this couldn’t really find any reason why but it’s interesting that a shop has made the decision not to sell bikes now I’ve spoken to local bike shops and stuff that have tried to sell orange and you’d think there would be a

Real big seller but it turns out they’ve not they’ve had them in stock they’ve had them for a year or so and they didn’t sell as well as they expected that’s really interesting so I want to discuss that more first though like I said at War Cliff Woods this is a cool

Little track here so we’re going to go check this track out it’s quite gnarly I’ve done this one before but never in conditions like this so let’s go check this out and we’ll continue this conversation in a bit all right then God my ass is twitching just thinking about it wa that is

Sppy straight into that woo to bet it woo whoa It’s so as I was saying it was the director Ashley ball I’ve just looked him up on my phone and made some notes he was I think the uh his director he’s bought it out and he’s basically Consolidated the two businesses the

Bastow sheet metal company and orange bikes and they’re the people that make the frames but what I thought was really interesting and quite telling like I say a big bike shop like Leeder Lakes dropping a a bike company they decided not to stock them in 2023 apparently and

I find find that really interesting I’m trying to wonder why that is like I say I know a few independent bike shops who have stocked orange over the years and they thought it was going to be like a dead sir they thought it was like an instant winner you know British brand

Made in Britain Halifax up in Yorkshire um you know stock them they were really well s of people who got them Rave about them but they didn’t sell any they struggled to sell any orange blew up massive in the ughs they were a huge huge company but now now is it the case

That they’re more of like a niche company something like um Starling bikes and things like that where they’re more Niche they’re more for their followers the people that want them absolutely love them but to everyone else there’s a lot of problems with them and I wonder

If that is the case and what we’re seeing is is a massive massive global company that was had bikes all around the world is turning more back into a niche company and as that Downs scales and resizes it’s coming with these problems and that’s then been as exacerbated by the current economic

Clima the current economic climate in the bike industry in particular I also think there’s a little bit more to it than that um and that’s to do with the bike designs and stuff but let’s get to the top of this climb and do another run and uh we’ll talk more let’s get going

Right woo that is sweet whoa oh I’m out the RO back in the RO out the rout again these roads so going back to what I was saying about orange bikes as an engineer myself and somebody who can appreciate design and Engineering their welds and the way

Their frames are made are nothing sure of exquisit absolutely beautiful but some things they’ve never done they’ve never experimented with anything other than a single pivot not to say that’s a bad thing the single pivot works fine and it definitely has its advantages and also they’ve never really

Experimented with carbon I think they’ve from what I can read and what I can remember um they’ve only ever made uh one carbon frame that was a road bike I don’t think they’ve ever even played with like a like a single pivot with like a DW link or like a a little link

Just to steady it you know that sort of thing and that’s a little bit of an issue because I’m not saying that they should do or that makes them backwards in their thinking or anything like that but I think what it does it gives an impression that they’re not in

Innovative they don’t they’re not into Innovation they not into pushing the envelope but my point I’m making is is because they’ve never innovated because they’ve never decided to do things with uh pivot design for example and I think pivot design is important they’ve got a reputation for not being the ones that

Are pushing the envelope and not being the ones that are being like at the Forefront of frame design frame design bik companies it’s getting more intelligent and it’s getting more sophisticated with it us as the customer we’re getting more intelligent and more sophisticated we understand frame design

More we watch videos and content and we read articles and we are becoming more knowledgeable we understand the benefit of that high pivot design like the fibid and Druid has um and why that is important for suspension design to do with the chain line and how the chain

Affects it and so the point I’m trying to make is is us as consumers we are becoming more aware of frame design and things like that and we look at Orange and are we looking at Orange and saying they’re cutting edge they’re leading the way they’re Market leaders and I don’t

Think we are are we and I think that’s a problem and then also the fact that they’ve not sort of experimented with carbon is interesting obviously they’re a a metalworking company um you know they’ve got their history in metal work and in sheet metal work but not experimenting with carbon not even

Coming out with carbon models or carbon versions I’m not sure if that’s a mistake also they’ve got a massive range they’ve got like how many different types of bikes in their range and they all look very similar don’t they and that could be a bit of an issue anyway

These trails are sick I’m going to go up here now cuz there’s like a bit of a jump Trail some lad are playing on it so I’m going to go check that out so let’s go do that and we’ll continue this chat in a minute it’sit sloppy to start

With but go around that massive hole it’s in this way who starts off oh yeah I’m not going fast enough I need to go faster yes almost launched off that I didn’t mean to this way is it this way that’s that’s fun but I have no idea

Where I’m going there’s a lot of cool features over this section there’s drops there’s Rock drops Little Rock jumps Little Rock gaps drop off off everything and it’s all really cool it’s all really ridable but it’s scattered and I think in the summer when it’s a little bit

More warn in and it’s not so sloppy where you can’t see just sloppy Trails everywhere you can’t see where you’re going you probably pick up the route you want to go down and you just play on it just found another really cool looking Trail little bit sloppy at the top but

It dries out as it goes down so I’m going to hit that one now let’s do this let’s go okay see top section might be a little bit sloppy right off the bat bet this is really lovely in some is trying to stay out the P for now just to keep the lens

Free the RO yeah baby Roost so yeah I’m riding around here and I’m just sort of thinking and I’m struggling to remember a time ever when orange were market leader in terms of innovation when they did something first when they were the first to Market with

A new design or A New Concept I don’t think it’s ever happened if I’m wrong let me know please let me know but I can’t think of it I mean the only thing I can really think about is the triple 2 the downhill bike

I had one and that was kind of like the first big travel bike that was pedal ball was it really everything was like 6 in and then I kind of jumped up to 8 in and I don’t know if that even counts I don’t want this to sound like I’m just

Dising orange and saying they’re crap but they’re not they make really really good bikes but I think if you don’t innovate you get left behind if you’re not in this game in racing in bikes in performance if you’re not moving forwards if you’re standing still even you’re going

Backwards any I’m back at the top now I’m going to drop in one of the black runs I think this one is called py named after the man himself which I suspect could mean it supernari so I’m going to proceed with caution and see how we get on let’s try

It wow head up mcoy whoa feet down this is routy whoa It’s a quog mire not really sure is this going to be ridable ah maybe give this one a Miss it’s a bit slippy it’s a bit bogy screw it going to give it a go yes let’s get super super boggy

This is nice Rocky though I’m buzzing that was super slippy super gnarly in places riding it completely blind had no idea where I was going what line choices to make it was getting super Ste steep at places I think I was over thinking it I think

Because I looked in trail fors and it’s literally called py I thought oh this is going to be something silly gnarly and it wasn’t too bad actually that was Ace I’m knackered though I’m not going to do it again um I’d love to have a play on

That that’s going to be Wicked I’m definitely going to come back when it’s a bit drier and play on that I think for sure I can’t stop thinking about Ledger Lakes though why would a big company like that choose not to stock a bike brand a company like that

Literally will stock every brand they will get every bike that customers want what’s the reason that they didn’t want to stop those bikes maybe there’s another reason so I suppose the question that I’m really been asking in this video is is the problems that orange bikes have been suffering part of the

Pandemic and the whole economy being low for the whole of the bike industry or was the writing already on the wall before and that was just a thing that t to over the edge who knows